Typically, a hand wrap is a strip of cloth used by boxers to protect the hand and wrist against injuries induced by punching. It is wrapped securely around the wrist, the palm, and the base of the thumb, where it serves to both maintain the alignment of the joints, and to compress and lend strength to the soft tissues of the hand during the impact of a punch.
Often, participants involved in boxing and martial arts-related sports, wear hand and wrist protection under larger boxing or bag gloves for additional protection and support. This protection is commonly called a hand wrap. Traditional hand wraps are made of cotton or canvas material, and are several feet in length. The participant will tightly wrap this material around his or her knuckles, hands, and wrists. Such hand wraps help prevent serious injury to hands during full contact professional or amateur fighting if they are administered and used correctly.
Typically, long cloth hand wrap are worn underneath a glove. However, the hand wrap can become dirty and discolored almost immediately when used. Thus, the long cloth wrap requires frequent cleaning. Further, it is difficult to maintain the hand wrap in its shape and manageability unless it is tightly rolled when not in use. Moreover, if the traditional hand wrap is not wrapped about the hand and wrist properly, it can become loose and unravel. This loosening lessens, and may even eliminate, the protection to the hands and wrists.
It is known in the art that donning the hand wrap on the hands can be a lengthy process which is cumbersome and time consuming. Generally, the hand wrap is wrapped between the fingers maintaining the fingers at an evenly spaced position. The hand wrap acts to prevents the knuckles from becoming distorted or smashed and acts as a shock absorber on inconsistent or uneven hits. However, without adequate finger and knuckle protection, the base of the fingers become bruised and swollen, even after a light exercise, potentially resulting in future problems such as arthritis.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.